Pair of Broad Street Bullies visit East Pikeland rehab center

Joe Watson, signing, and Bernie Parent, far end of table, at PowerBack Rehabilitation in East Pikeland at a "pep rally."

EAST PIKELAND — Flyers fans of all ages turned out at a local rehabilitation center Tuesday afternoon to get a hug from Bernie Parent or a vice-like handshake from Joe Watson.

Both Broad Street Bullies came to PowerBack Rehabilitation, a short-stay rehabilitation center that is a Flyers season sponsor, Tuesday afternoon as part of a “pep rally” for the Flyers.

The pair met with fans who ranged from having watched Parent and Watson from their humble beginnings in the Flyers’ inaugural season to current diehards who never got a chance to see the pair take the ice.

“Obviously, you can see they have a lot of fun with what we’re doing,” said Watson. “We enjoy meeting older fans, newer fans ... if we don’t have fans, we don’t have a job. And they support us very likely.”

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For more than an hour, Parent and Watson took time to get photos and sign autographs for patients, their relatives and staff of the rehabilitation center. More than 50 people came into the “media room” where the event was held, which staff afterward said was a “great” turnout for the facility.

Forty years after their first Stanley Cup, any member of the Broad Street Bullies remains venerated.

“I remember when (coach) Fred Shero wrote down on the blackboard just before the first Stanley Cup,’We win tonight and we walk together forever,’” Parent said. “You know, at the time, I thought it was just the hockey team, the coaching staff, the whole thing, but it turned out to be the whole Delaware Valley. And that’s a beautiful thing.”

“That was my era,” said Bonnie Smokevitch, a patient who spoke with Parent while getting his autograph. “I’ve been watching him. He’s so personable. He plays to a crowd.”

A little late to the event, Parent and his “navigator,” Watson, got a little lost.

“Imagine hockey players getting lost,” Watson explained to laughs.

“Everything he says, I’ll repeat in French,” Parent said after Watson’s explanation.

Later, the as the two were signing autographs, a group of women checked out Watson’s championship ring from one of the Stanley Cup runs.

“What’s wrong with his face, eh?” Parent laughed. “They like the ring more than his face.”

Craig Harris, the regional vice president of operations for PowerBack, said he was a huge Flyers fan growing up and the partnership affords them opportunities like the one Tuesday.

“I was glued to the TV during those (Stanley Cup) runs,” Harris said. “It was a really important time in Philly sports. We hadn’t had a championship since the reorganization (of the NFL).”

“We’re really excited to be part of the (Flyers’) partners,” he said.

Jean Hunsberger, a patient, was another who kept close tabs on the Flyers via TV. She wore a Claude Giroux Winter Classic jersey.

“It’s a nice surprise,” she said of the two Bullies visiting. “I watched on TV. Joe, his brother, the LCB line, I liked all of them. All of them.”

Later, Hunsberger won the top prize in a raffle, a Scott Hartnell signed jersey. Hunsberger was wheeled over to claim her prize and got a trademark Parent hug.

“We came along at the right time,” Watson said. “We were a bunch of Canadians that came down from Canada and won back-to-back Stanley Cups in ‘74 and ‘75. I talk to people today who remember where they were when the Flyers won the Stanley Cup. I never realized our popularity would continue this long, into 40 years later.”

“I remember when we were introduced to Philadelphia in 1967. We were on a float and about 10 people showed up because nobody knew about the Flyers,” Parent said. “But the beauty is, it tells you about the city we’re in, seven years later we won the championship and over 2 million were at the parade. It tells you about the people. It’s my family; that’s why we stay here. Everywhere I go I feel I’m part of the family and it’s beautiful.”